CDC Map Reveals Disproportionate Death Risks State by State

When it comes to uniqueness, there’s something to be said for every American state coast to coast. And it appears the same can also be said for mortality risks too, as a new map published this weekend by the CDC sheds undeniably compelling light on the kinds of disproportionate death threats specific to each US state.

A pair of CDC researchers decided to look into mortality rates in respect to specific and comparatively unusual causes or diseases in each American state, in order to then compare the data to the national average. In doing so, they were able to determine exactly which states appeared to present the most elevated risk of death by a comparatively uncommon cause or disease – some of the results where rather more surprising than others.

“In Alaska, the number of deaths due to accidents by boat or plane is 41 per million but in rest of country it’s six [deaths] per million so it’s seven times higher,” remarked Francis Boscoe, one of the CDC researchers.

Other examples of key interest included pneumoconiosis, which poses a much more severe threat to citizens in mining states like Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania than the rest of the country. Several northern states where colder weather is more common were found to present the highest risk of death influenza, while the HIV death rate in Florida remains one of the highest by far.

Residents of New York and Connecticut apparently face a greater risk of dying as a result of inflammatory diseases of female pelvic organs than the rest of the United States, why syphilis death rates in Louisiana are also disproportionately high.

By contrast, Arkansas and Arizona residents were found to be at much higher risk of dying due to accidental discharge of a firearm than those living in other American states.